Eight classic cars to save, including a ’66 Vette

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Encinitas:

On a typical Tuesday afternoon at 1 o’clock in late October, mortgage broker Tommy Smith would not be checking his e-mail inside an office at the Community and Senior Center in Encinitas, which was serving as an evacuated shelter.

But Smith and his family had been evacuated from his La Costa Oaks home a few miles away and he was trying hard to maintain a sense of normalcy.

“Just trying to get some work done,” Smith said. “I figure this is the price you pay for living somewhere nice. It’s pretty smoky. But would you rather be here or in New Orleans. At least here you can see it coming and you can leave.”

Smith sold his house and his mortgage company last year and left Dallas so he could be “close to the ocean.” He lives on the border of Carlsbad, San Marcos and Encinitas, but he’s not satisfied.

“The idea is to try to get on the other side of Interstate 5 and if things really work out, we’ll get on the other side of Coast Highway.”

While Smith worked, his sons Hollis, 12, and Braden, 5, were adjusting well to life as fire refugees.

“Braden doesn’t want to leave this place,” Smith said. “He’s playing basketball outside, watching cartoons and eating whatever and whenever he wants.”

Inside the living quarters, Ron Bird was glued to a tiny black-and-white television checking for updates on the fate of his $3 million home in the upscale rural community of Olivenhain.

A few firefighters knocked on Bird’s door Monday at noon and told him to seek shelter elsewhere. His house sits across a valley from Rancho Santa Fe and the exclusive “Bridges Golf Course,” where celebrities such as Phil Mickelson are members.

Bird was worried about the fire jumping the valley that sits between his house and the course, but he felt confident his 5,200 square-foot home would remain intact.

“If it starts cooking, it’ll roar up that canyon,” said Bird, 63, a retired airline pilot for U.S. Air. “But I’ve cleared about 120 feet of brush, so hopefully it’ll stop right at my gate. I figure I’m the first line of defense for the whole community.”

If he’s wrong, Bird doesn’t want to consider the consequences. A chunk of his 5-acre property is taken up by a 250,000 square foot garage that contains eight classic cars--one of the them, a 1966 Corvette, is worth an estimated $60,000.

“We got most of the family pictures and important papers,” he said. “I’ve got those and my wife, everything else you can replace. Even the cars.”

Bird has declined offers to stay with friends in Carlsbad, because he doesn’t want to impose. So he’ll continue to sleep on parts of a wooden stage and a one-inch thick mat and hope his back can hold up.

“I didn’t expect it this good,” he said.

-- Dave McKibben